Difference between roller bearing and ball bearing
The whole idea behind the use of bearings is to make work a little bit easier. The history of bearings dates back to some centuries and the evolution of these important pieces of equipments have given rise to new types of bearings that are categorized in accordance with their shape and application area they are widely put to utilization.
The main job of a bearing is to reduce the opposing force to motion otherwise called friction between two surfaces. Although there are numerous types of bearings today in the planet, the main types used that will be given preference in this article are the ball bearings and the roller bearings. To some extent, the role of the two types of friction reducing equipments is out rightly similar although the fundamental differences that distinguish the two are very apparent.
As we have already pointed out in the article, the basic purpose of any bearing is to reduce the friction between any rotating mechanical object such as the bicycle gears and pedals, this will then lead us to observe the basic point that, the area of comparison between any type of bearing cannot be based on the practical application of each since the application is similar, but to the characteristics associated with the design of each bearing.
Ball bearings are basically hardened spherical balls that are normally placed in a small contact area with the concerned load. The loads handled by ball bearings can be radical or thrust in nature although the overall load handled should be smaller to reduce the chances of balls deformation due to pressure.
Contrary to the ball bearings, the roller bearings are largely used in lager loads such as multi – purpose conveyor belts. They are cylindrical in shape and allow the load to be spread along a large area of contact hence reducing the overall pressure. What this means is that the durability of roller bearings is much more higher compared to ball bearing a factor that makes the former different from the latter.